planning for halloween! it IS just around the corner you know!

my first teacher gift for the 2011-12 school year!

halloween soap!

and yes, you are seeing that correctly my thrifty friends, it was 90% off!

80 cents baby!

this is gonna be one cheap year!

i didnt forget!

i didn't forget about my project for my aunt and her school kids.

i was just waiting for her to get them!

here are some of the 30 pencil bags i made with the help of some very special friends!

here is what used to be my kitchen table while i bagged all of the loot donated.

(i was looking for the phone!)

this the final project! well, some of them.

and here are the kids!

this is a dora bandaide that was donated. the kids love them!
thank you EVERYONE who helped out1

oooppps! i need a halloween costume!

well here i am to the rescue!

if you are lucky, your child won't want to wear an ugly, bought over the internet costume...

i hate this costume.

SO MUCH!

but i love parker so i made him happy and ordered it.

nate wanted to be a ninja and i got to make his costume.

and if you are short on time-you can be a ninja too!

lets work from the bottom up.

i got a pair of sneaker that i was ready to throw away anyhow, and just put a pair of men's socks over them to be ninja boots. i get the socks from the $1 store and by the end of trick or treating, they are trashed! so i chuck the shoes and the socks away.

next are your basic sweatpants. in this case, i happened to have a pair of black long underwear for nate.

black long sleeved shirt and a piece of black fabric or scarf for a belt.

$3 ninja sword from savers.

now for the hat/heard piece...

you need a long sleeved black shirt.

don't put your head the whole way thru, just have your face looking out.

tie the arms of the shirt around the back of the head and move the head hole around until you have covered most of your face.

so easy!

now get out there and get some candy!

halloween decorations-finally

i know! i should have done this way way earlier in the month!

but between strep,and an early halloween party at school and getting ready for disneyland, going to disneyland, getting strep AGAIN...

let us start with this...50 cents at the d.i.! i left it on '31' all month because

1. im lazy and

2. that is what i was decorating for and i liked it.

the little coffins on the right the boys decorated.

one is glow in the dark but it doesn't really show up on the photo well.

those are my scary halloween balls on the bowl type thing on the left.

and candy corn in the cups for the hubby.

(i have refilled those cups about 10 times!)

oh and the cup holder thing?

thanks to d.i., i only paid $3!

best. halloween. decoration. ever.

most of the time when kids bring home a halloween decoration from school, i hang it up then chuck it november 1st.

this is one that parker made on his own when he was about 4.

it is just on a post it note.

and it goes up every year.

has to be the cutes frankenstein ever!

ps-parker always refers to frank sinatra as frankenstein just to tease me.

i'm just happy he loves frank almost as much as i do!

a halloween favorite!

for the past several years, we have gotten the papa murphy's jack o latern pizza on halloween night.

my kids adore pizza and would eat it 3 times a day if i would let them.

of course, by the time we get to it, we take off the olives (YUCK) and add more pepperoni.

so im not sure why we make such a big deal out of it...

once a princess, always a princess!

for the past few years i have been a princess at halloween. one year i was sleeping beauty (with a big long black wig...goo!), last year i was peincess leia so this year i'm...

an indian princess!

not really pocahontas, as i dont show that much boob. or belly.

usually.

and this is a way way simple costume. you will need 2 tshirts (whatever size fits. i used a large) and some beads. i bet you can use the colorful plastic ones,  but i used wood ones that i spray painted.

(and this was the ONLY photo out of 40 that i could use of my kids in the shirts)

i sewed the shirts together at the bottom, right sides together, then cut one off right at the arm pits of the shirt.

i strung the wood beads onto a string as a necklace.

pretty much that is all.

i re cut the bottom on an angle to be a bit more cooler. and i cut some fringe on the arms.

with what was left of the cut shirt, i made a little belt and strung some beads on it.

so watch out john smith-there is a new pocahontas in town!

homemade costumes from years past...

the famous jedi costumes. i used mccalls costume pattern 268. 

half the neighborhood ended up using this for their own jedi costumes.

different year same movie. simplicity pattern 4795.

hair by mary!

no pattern needed for han solo...just the thrift store for a vest and black pants. oh and a wig!

this one is from 1975. my dad made me and my little brother train engines.

i love the tin foil smoke!

this wasn't a halloween costume-my niece was having a farm themed party and i got dressed up!

it was the early-90s and those pants were suppose to be that high!

and this was my dad, about 1980.
i have no idea what he was dressed up as. he always put together his own costumes and surprised us each year.

he liked to scare kids.

target="_blank" title="Corner House Costume Party">

scarey halloween costumes of years past!

this is chris and i from 2008. it was a shrek themed halloween party. im sleeping beauty and he is the wizard from shrek 3. (yes, there are shorts under the robe!)

here is me, jeffery, my brother patrick and dayna (she was my neighbor, jeffery is her cousin).

we were in pittsburgh at the time, hence the steelers jacket over the magicians costume.

and the snowcoats on under everything else!

chris as bill clinton halloween 1997. my sister in law borrowed the mask to wear and her now hubby dressed up in a blue dress (monica). very disturbing.

but one of the most disturbing...halloween 2007.

that is parker, mitch, kameron, sawyer and nate.

im CERTAIN that mitch would love to know that this photo still exists and will be brought back to haunt him.

ps-still struggling with strep here. im on my second medication and although i can swallow, im sleeping alot. sorry if i dont email you back!

the countdown begins!

no not for christmas (btw-only 85 days away).

for halloween!

time to start counting down!

again, always the copy catter, i got the idea here .

i made two sets-one for us and the other for my niece ella (she was 3 at the time).

some have spider rings and roaches.

some have candy.

all of mine have 2 prizes because i have the two kids and it isn't worth the fighting about who gets what.

last year when i took this photo i didn't know how to use my camera. so i apologize for the poor quality of the photo.

ps-all it cost was for the little boxes. hobby lobby was having a sale on cardboard boxes, so they were 50 cents each. and the scrapbook paper, magnets and embellishments i just had around.

my halloween tree

i found this dead tree in an empty lot last fall. because as well all know, empty lots are free for anyone to dump on.

(i hate when people do that)

i might do things differently this year, but here is how it went down in 2009....

i spray painted the tree black, then filled an old bucket with styrofoam (we had a new tv, so it was perfect timing!) and then plaster of paris.

this was the problem...

one of many.

the tree was so brittle (it was DEAD! hello!) it broke easily.

then the bucket, even with much styrofoam, was freakin' heavy!

but...once chris got it inside, i made it look awesome!

(but still broke if you breathed near by)

some spiderwebs and black crows

(from the $1 store-not the group!)

it looked fantastic in the entry way until halloween night. then poor chris had to drag it outside...

you cant tell but i have orange halloween lights on the pillars. they look great at night.

my friend jen and i made this skeleton a few years ago. and one of the kids made the broom.

so there you have it-LAST years decorations.

 im hoping to figure out an easier way to make a spooky tree for this year.